Woodstock High School Earns State STEM Certification

WOODSTOCK, GA -- Woodstock High School has become the first high school in the Cherokee County School District and the 12th in Georgia to earn the State STEM Certification. A Georgia Department of Education State STEM Certification Team visited the school Wednesday to make the final determination as to whether the school had achieved the high standards required for the elite designation. The team unanimously gave the school its seal of approval.

“The certification committee could not stop praising the efforts of Woodstock High School and the opportunities our students have to be part of such a rich experience,” Principal Mark Smith said.

Woodstock High School is the first high school and only the second school in CCSD -- following Clark Creek Elementary School STEM Academy -- to earn this distinction.

“For Woodstock High School, this is the culmination of several years’ worth of planning and implementation on the part of our teachers, parents, business partners, and students,” Smith added about the accomplishment. “Moving forward, this will allow our students who choose to follow one of our STEM Pathways to be officially recognized by the State as having completed a certified STEM Pathway.”

The path to State STEM certification is a complex, multi-year process requiring strong evidence of meeting and exceeding standards in areas such as math and science instruction, technology integration, teacher collaboration, STEM competitions and business partnerships. Smith and the school will be recognized for earning this honor by the Cherokee County School Board and Superintendent of Schools at the board’s Nov. 16 meeting.

"This is an amazing accomplishment that the entire Cherokee County community can be proud of, and for which so many deserve kudos and thanks for their efforts and support," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Hightower said. "We knew that Woodstock’s team was leading the charge on high school STEM education, and this recognition is an extraordinary validation that we’re on the right path in preparing students for the STEM careers of today and tomorrow. The lessons learned through this process have evolved into best practices that all of our schools can adopt. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement."

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